Storm's Tattoo
by Jo the Phoenix
Summary: X2: Kuroro Ororo begs for a tattoo and the chance to get to know Kurt.


Storm's Tattoo

DISCLAIMER: They're not mine. Property of Marvel.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The scenes in X2 between Storm and Nightcrawler really intrigued me, and the plot bunny for this story hit me hard. Had to write it down, or I'd go nuts. Possible romance, I haven't written anything else with these characters yet.

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"They're beautiful." Ororo tells me. She'd told me that before, but she repeats it. "Will you give me one?" she asks hesitantly.

Shocked, I blink. My fingers run along the raised lines on my face. Penance. Why would she -

"Please, Kurt?" She stops herself from lifting her hand to my face. I watch her fingers entwine with each other as I nod. Her smile is beautiful. Ororo hands me a slip of paper. On it is a simple drawing of a wavy line ending in a spiral. I look at it in wonder. She has planned this out.

"It's - It represents the wind." She tells me softly. I nod again.

"Alright." I stare at the paper until she draws my eyes again. She turns around and puts a hand on her neck, below her hair. "Here."

"When would you like to do this?"

"Tomorrow night?" she asks. I want to put it off until next week, so that maybe she'll forget about it. I doubt that she will, though, having planned and drawn it out.

"Alright." I sigh. Her soft hand takes mine and she thanks me.

The next night, I knock softly on her bedroom door. I barely tap, hoping she doesn't hear me, and I can put this off.

She hears me, unfortunately, and answers the door. She's wearing a tank top and she has her thick hair pinned up. Her hair is still wet from a shower, and the mild fragrance from her soap lingers in the air.

"Hey, Kurt." She greets me with a smile and waves me into her space, closing the door behind me. I peer around curiously. There are many lush, hanging plants, fed by the large west-facing windows which would let in the sun. I glance at the bed and am dismayed to see the tools needed for tattooing the skin. Needles in paper, from the auto-clave in the medical lab in the school. A towel is laid across her pillow.

I stare at the floor. "You really want to do this."

"Yes."

"Fraulien - " I gulp and start again. "Ororo, I do this," I gesture at my markings, "as payment. Penance. They hurt. They are not for beauty's sake. I do not want to hurt you for beauty." I stare back at the floor. "You are beautiful already." I tell her softly. I half-expect her to be angry with me, and so I am surprised to see her smiling at me when I look up.

"Thank-you, Kurt. But," she hesitates. "It is not beauty, but self-expression that I aim for. I wanted also the opportunity to get to know you."

"We could go for a walk! Or I could teach you to do a handstand or back flips! Then we'll get to know each other!" I laugh.

She smiles. "I already know how to walk on my hands."

"How about trapeze work?"

She raises her eyebrows and her lips quirk into a smile.

I grow serious. "Do you really want to do this?"

She nods and moves to the bed. I sigh.

Beside the paper and plastic wrapped needles is the drawing of the design she wants. I study it and set it on the nightstand.

As I brush a few of the hairs up off of the back of her neck, we begin to speak. She tells me of her family, about growing up in Egypt; she tells me many things about herself. As I begin the tattoo work, I hear her breath hiss in and out of her clenched teeth. I flinch, and she says to me "I'm okay."

I continue and as I do, I tell her about my life; I mostly tell her funny stories about the circus. I finish telling her about the time that I got my tail caught in the net. "I was fourteen, and just learning how to teleport. I had lost control and fallen off of the trapeze. Fortunately, the net was up and I landed safely. But my tail got stuck in the rope coils. So, panicked and upset, I teleported. I took the whole net with me, and when I came back, my entire body was tangled up in it, from my frantic struggles to free my tail."

Ororo laughs, and I tell her how it took two nimble-fingered ladies and an hour to get me untangled. "That taught me to keep calm in a bad situation and that old nimble-fingered ladies are much more patient than I am."

"And also to keep your tail close about you if you fall?" asks Ororo, and I hear the smile in her word. I flip my tail and it lands on her pillow right in front of her face. She laughs as I apologize, claiming my tail has a mind of its own. I chastise it, wagging a finger at it. "Stay! Down, tail, down!" It falls back onto the bed, limp, where I am sitting.

Ororo giggles and puts her face back onto the pillow and I pick up my needle again. I did not even realize I had set it down, so involved in telling my story. I look at Ororo's neck and am surprised and delighted to see that her artwork is complete. I must have been _really_ involved in my story!

"It's done!" I tell her.

"Really?" She's surprised, too. She goes to her mirror and I hold a smaller mirror up behind her to reflect her reflection.

"The swelling will go down, and the redness."

"Kurt. It's beautiful!" she whispers.

"Well," I start. "If it is your self-expression, then it _has_ to be be!"

She laughs and suddenly hugs me.

"Thank-you, Kurt!" I open her bedroom door and am about to leave when she calls. "Say, Kurt? Will you teach me to swing on the trapeze now? I still want to get to know you!"

I turn back and am glad that I do not blush. "_Ja_, alright, Ororo. _Guten_ _Nacht_."

"Good night, Kurt," she says, shutting the door softly.

"Good night, Ororo" I whisper again.


End file.
